EIGHT
Emily
I glanced at my suitcases by the door again. It had to be the thousandth time today.But I couldn’t help it. Every time I looked at them, my heart did this little flip. This was actually happening. I was finally leaving.
Tony had been acting weird this morning. Almost sympathetic, which was bizarre.But I didn’t care. What mattered was that he said my time in this house ended tonight.
Then he added something strange before leaving:“Surrender to your fate, or you’ll spend the rest of your life in pain and suffering.”
He was warning me. At first, I was scared. What if he was going to back out of the deal? But then he handed me my phone, a plane ticket, and my passport. The phone was turned off and he told me not to power it on until I was out of the house. Of course I listened. I mean, when a Mafia man gives you an order, you don’t shrug it off. At least that’s what my gut kept telling me.
So, when one of the guards came over and said there was a family matter and I needed to leave the party, I was thrilled. I left without a second thought. Honestly, the only reason I even showed up at that party was because Tony told me to.
I changed out of my dress into jeans and a T-shirt, stepped onto my balcony, and gazed up at the clear, star-filled sky, thinking about the future that lay ahead of me. College. Walking down a street without looking over my shoulder. Grabbing coffee with Jill and talking about stupid stuff.
Now I could finally see how foolish I’d been, taking all those moments in my life for granted. From now on, I wanted to change everything. Maybe this trip had brought something good after all.
Suddenly, all the lights in the mansion and the yard went out, plunging everything into pitch darkness. Seconds later, gunfire rang out in the distance. As I scrambled back into my room, the door burst open. I screamed, but a man’s voice, louder than mine, silenced me.
“Shut up and listen! Don’t leave this room. Lock the door!”
The voice sounded familiar. Giorgio. The guard who’d pulled me out of the party. The emergency lights flickered on, confirming what I’d already guessed. As soon as he left, I did exactly what he said. The chaos outside lasted about ten minutes before the house had gone eerily quiet.
A knock came at the door. “Hey, miss. You still there?” It was Giorgio again.
“Yes. What happened?”
“It’s over. Everything’s fine. Just stay put, alright? I’m right outside.”
“Thanks, but why are you standing guard at my door?”
“Boss’s orders. He said to keep you here until he tells you what to do next.”
“Tony said that?”
“Who the hell is Tony? Let me warn you that if you ever call him ‘boss’ in front of Don Carlo, he’ll rip your tongue out of your throat.”
Jesus. Everyone here was completely insane. Why the hell would Carlo want me locked in my room? I couldn’t wait for morning and to be out of this hellhole.
About an hour later, I heard footsteps outside. Voices at first, low, muffled. Then Giorgio barked, loud and clear. “The girl stays here. That’s a direct order from Don Carlo, and you all know the consequences if you disobey.”
“Lucia ran off with Tony. If we interrogate the girl now, we might be able to stop Don Carlo from losing even more face,” said another voice I recognized instantly. It was Giuseppe.
My breath caught.What the hell did he just say? Tony ran off with Lucia? That bastard ditched me, left me to face this pack of wolves while he escaped with the wife-killer’s golden wife?
“Listen, old man,” Giorgio grunted. “I don’t want to spill your filthy blood, but if you touch this door, I will.”
A struggle broke out and angry voices exploded outside the room. The doorknob rattled up and down. When the person outside couldn’t get in, they shot the lock open and Giuseppe stormed in, his bloated gut wobbling beneath his suit. A few armed men followed him in. I looked past them into the hallway. Several men lay unconscious and I saw a gun jammed against Giorgio’s head.
Blood dripped from his mouth as he spat and snarled, “You’re a dead man, Giuseppe. Don’t touch her. Don Carlo will burn you alive.”
“A weak man who couldn’t even protect his own woman’s pussy. We don’t need a capo like that,” Giuseppe sneered.
He started moving toward me. I backed away instinctively, step by step, until my shoulders hit the wall. There was nowhere left to go. He grabbed me by the collar, slapped me hard three times in a row, then threw me to the floor.
My head hit the floor, and for a second, everything blurred. The taste of blood coated my tongue, metallic, thick. I was dizzy, my limbs slow to react as I tried to crawl. But he kicked me in the side, and the air rushed out of my lungs, leaving me gasping, stunned, folded in on myself.
As I lay there, struggling to breathe, his venomous voice slashed through the room.“You knew about Tony’s plan, didn’t you? You filthy whore. Since you enjoy being passed around so much, I’ve got a surprise for you. Soon enough, you’ll be servicing every single one of my men. Every night.”
